Life is a tug-of-war,
for our right hand often doesn’t know
what the left hand is doing.

We want two things that cannot coexist–
a happy lover and a happy marriage,
stay-at-home motherhood and a career,
the food we want with the body we want.

Like Irena Dubrovna,
there is the fear of wanting,
of getting what we want,
and more than what we want.

It isn’t what we see,
but what we don’t see–
the ringing telephone,
the letter left unopened,
doors not answered.

We cannot fight what we cannot,
or will not,
name.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12